Some nozzle reactors operate to cause interactions between materials and achieve alteration of the physical or chemical composition of one or more of the materials. Such interaction and alteration typically occurs by injecting the materials into a reactor chamber in the nozzle reactor. The manner in which the materials are injected into the reactor chamber and the configuration of the various components of the nozzle reactor may both contribute to how the materials interact and what types of alterations are achieved.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,618,597 describes various configurations for a nozzle reactor wherein the cracking material and the material to be cracked are injected into the reactor chamber of the nozzle reactor at approximately transverse directions. Additionally, the nozzle reactors described in the '597 patent describe a cracking material injection pathway capable of accelerating the cracking material to a supersonic speed as it enters the reactor chamber. These features of the disclosed nozzle reactors, along with additional features, can help to achieve increased conversion rates of material to be cracked injected into the nozzle reactor. Additionally, these features can help to ensure that the material to be cracked is sufficiently altered (e.g., broken down into smaller compounds having a sufficiently low molecular weight for the desired product).
The '597 primarily contemplates methods wherein the nozzle reactor is utilized to crack bitumen feed stream. However, obtaining a bitumen stream, or even a material stream that is primarily bitumen, can prove to be difficult. Several processing steps often must take place in order to isolate bitumen from, e.g., oil sands, which would thereby increase the cost of performing the bitumen cracking methods described in the '597 patent. Additionally, the ability to use the nozzle reactor cracking method described in the '597 patent with other types of material streams, including material streams of traditionally less valuable hydrocarbon material, would be a highly desirable feature.